Musical instrument



L. J. WING.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. AP'PLICATI'ON FILED mun, 1920.

- Patented Mar. '21; 1922.

2 SHEET SSHEET I.

L. J. WING.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

Y APPLICATION men JAN.29, 1920. 1,410,235. Patented Mar- 21, 1922.

- 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 UNITED STATES LEVlZ J. WING, or EAST onnnenhnw JERSEY.

mJsIGAL INSTRUMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Mar. 21, 1922.

Application filed. January 29, 1920. Serial No. v354,823.

To all 'wlhom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEVI J. WING, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of East Orange, Essex County, and State of New Jersey, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Musical Instruments, of "which the following is a specification. p

My present invention relates in particular to manually operated instruments of the player piano type and the objects ofthe invention are to provide power mechanism for operating such players, which can be readily attached to the player and which will provide an additional musical instrument, such as a phonograph which may be played either in conjunction with or independently of the player.

The invention aims also to providethe combined power attachment and phonograph in such form that it may serve as a convenient receptacle for the storage of both player records and phonograph records.

A further object of the invention is to soconstruct and arrange the. power mechanism that it will not interfere, in the matter of sound, with the playing of either the phonographor the player. r

The invention involves a number of novel features of construction, combination and arrangements of parts, all ofwhich will be fully disclosed in the following specification and which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification. y

In the drawings referred to, Figure 1 isa view of the attachment as applied to a player piano of the ordinary foot-operated ty e. igure 2 is a view ofthepower mechanism looking at the left hand side of the device shown in Figure 1 and with the walls of the cabinet broken away and shown in section.

Figure 3 is a plan View of the power mechanism as taken on f'substantially the plane of the line 3--3 of Figure 2.

The mechanism of the device is contained in .a suitable cabinet 5 which may be onth'e order of the usual phonograph cabinet. Mounted in the base of this cabinet is "a motor 6 of suitable size and power to oper-' atethebellows or pump forthe player and to drive the phonograph. This I have illustrated as an electric motor which may be controlled by a suitable switch and which ordinarily will be provided with an extension cold by which it maybe coupled to a convenient source of current; r

7 designates a pump or bellows mounted also in the base of'the cabinet and driven from the motor by suitable gearing such as by means of the pulley 8 on the motor shaft connected. by a belt 9' with a pulley 10 on thepump shaft 11. The bellows is connected with the wind chest 12 of the player by suitable piping 13 -which may bein the form of a flexible hose extending from the bellows through the back of the cabinet and 1 brought to the wind 'chestthrough an opening in the back of the piano case. This motor driven bellows takes the place of ,the foot-operated bellows mechanism which is illustrated generally at 14: and this without. interferingwith the use of such foot-operated mechanism when so desired.

. Mounted in the upper portion of the cabi net 5 is the phonograph mechanism comprising a turn table or record support 15 with which cooperates a soundbox carried by the tone arm 16.

This phonograph mechanism is also operated'from the motor 6 by driving connections comprising in the present disclosure a pulley '17 carried by the pulley 10 on the bellows shaft and connected by a belt 18 to a pulley 19 on the shaft 20 which latter carries a friction pinion 21 engaging a disc 22 on the lower end of the vertical turn table shaft 23. This vertical shaft is shown as extending from the power compartment 24 in the base of the cabinet up through a vertical partition 25 which divides the up g per portion of the cabinet into two. compartments 26 and 27 the first of which is arranged to form a filing compartment for phonograph records and the latter of which is designed'as a compartment for player piano rolls.

In order that the speed of the turn table may be varied, aslis usual in phonographs,

I have shown the friction pinion as s11 ably keyedat 28 on the transverseshaft 20 and asadapted'to be shifted by a fork 29 rounding the guide posts 39. These guide carried by a control rod 30 disposed in a corner of the cabinet and projecting up into the phonograph compartment at one side of the turn table and there provided with a suitable control handle 31. The movement of this controller is preferably such that the driving pinion may, when desired, be shifted entirely out of engagement with the disc 22, to thereby disconnect or uncouple the phonograph mechanism.

en playing the phonograph alone, it may be desirable at times to disconnect the bellows mechanism and for this purpose I have shown a clutch 32 splined on thebellows shaft 11 and adapted to be shifted into and out of engagement with a complementary clutch member 33 on the back of the pulley 10 by means of a shipping fork 34 operated by a control rod extended out through an opening in the side of the cabinet and there provided with'a suitable handle 36. i

The effect of possible noise or vibration of the power mechanism is overcome in the present disclosure by mounting said mechanism, including both the motor and the bellows, on a base 37 preferably made of sound-damping material, such as layers of cardboard or the like and which base is supported on tapered helical springs 38 surposts may be in the form of screws such as indicated, engaged in the bottom of the "cabinet and having heads 40 disposed at the upper side of the motor base 37 and forming stops limiting the extent of upward movement thereof. The sound-damping base thus cushioned, I find, effectively eliminates any objectionable sounds or vibration from the motor or the pump mechanism. I

At times it may be desirable to reduce the force exerted b the bellows and for this purpose I have s own the same provided with a relief valve l-l mounted on one end of the bellows structure and controlling the relief opening 42, said valve being controlled in the illustration by asuitable control lever "113 connected with the valve rod 44.

\Vhen the motor is thrown into operation and the clutch element 32 is so positioned that the bellows shaft is driven, power will be furnished to the player piano which will then operate entirely automatically and which may, however, if desired, be controlled as desired by means of the hand controls usually provided on such. instruments. Thus operating, the power for the player is furnished by the attachment described, but the expression may be governed as fancy dictates, independently of such power. If not desired to use the power attachment, the )layer may be operated in the usual way y means of foot ower.

If it is desired to us e ph n gr p alone, the clutch element 32 may be shifted to uncouple the bellows or the relief slide ll may simply be shifted to open. the relief valve. In either of these events the phonograph mechanism will be driven and may be governed to suit the speed or pitch required.

Another possibility is to operate both the player and the phonograph, in which case the phonograph, of course, will be controlled to bring it into harmony with the player.

To facilitate the mounting and unmounting of the motor and pump mechanism, I have shown the upper board .87 of sound: deadening material as detachably held to the lower board 37 by means of suitable fastenings, such as the screws indicated at 50. The lower board is held by the heads 40 of the studs 39 and hence remains in place in the casing while the upper board carrying the power mechanism may be readily removed therefrom.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many changes and modifications may be made without departure from. the true spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

hat I claim is: I

1. The combination wit-h a pneumatically operated player piano having controls, of a. phonograph cabinet separate from the player piano, a pump for operating the player piano mounted in said phonograph cabinet, a pneumatic connection between said pump in the phonograph cabinet and the pneumatic mechanism of the player piano, phonograph mechanism in the cabinet, a motor in the cabinet and driving connections from said motor to the pump and. to the phonograph. mechanism respectively and controllable in conjunction with the controls of the player piano to effect synchronization of the two instruments.

2. The combination with a pneumatirally operated player piano having controls, a phonograph cabinet separate from the player piano, a pump for operating the player piano mounted in said phonograph cabinet, at pneumatic connection between said, pump in the phonograph cabinet and the pneun'iatic mechanism of the player piano, phonograph mechanism in the cabinet. a motor in the cabinet and driving connections trom said. motor to the pump and to the phonograph mechanism respectively and controllable in conjunction with the controls of the player piano. to effect syiuzhronization oi the two instruments and. said. connections furthermore being operable toenable playing of the phonograph at different speeds independently oi the player piano.

3. The combination witha pneumatically operated player piano having controls, of a phonograph cablnet separate from the player piano, a pump for operating theplayer piano mounted in said phonograph cabinet, pneumatic connections between said pump in the v phonograph cabinet and the pneumatic mechanism of the player piano, phonograph mechanism in the cabinet, a motor in the cabinet, driving connections from said motor to the pump and to the phonograph mechanism respectively and controllable in con- 7 junction with the controls of the player piano 10 to effect independent control of the two instruments for synchronization purposes and a controllable relief valve in the line of pneumatic connections between the pump and player piano.

In Witness whereof, I hereunto set my hand this 24th day of January, 1920.

LEVI J. WING. 

